Sha'ki Holines Commits to UConn

[Dann]

dc'd from umass


3* rivals
2* 247
2* espn
umass and maine offers and bc interest
i am not sure if hes a de or lb at this point.

 

[ktuck911]

u da man HfD... I saw your retweet pop up a moment ago.. Honestly, it made more sense for him to be in Storrs than Amherst.. No disrespect to UMASS, it's just the order of the food chain... We had to go thru it, now they are...

 

[Kurt]

Is this the kid?

 

[kibblesnbits]

I'm glad you corrected the spelling because when I originally saw this thread I had two questions:

1) Isn't the Pope a little old for football?
2) What position would he play?

 

[pj]

Welcome Sha'ki!

 

[noeynox]

I was hoping we landed him. Welcome young Mr. Holines.

 

[UConnDan97]

Welcome to the Dog Pound, Sha-ki!!

 

[ktuck911]

from espn....
Springfield Commerce head coach Tyrone Mathis confirmed to ESPNBoston.com that senior linebacker Sha'ki Holines has decommitted from UMass.

The Springfield Republican initially reported the story of Holines' decision this evening on its website. Holines reportedly holds Division 1 offers from UConn and Maine, in addition to the Minutemen.

"When I talked to him about he said yeah, he wants go to UConn," Mathis said. "I don't know if he's gonna commit there, or if he's decommitting just to see what else is out there. It was a shocker to me."

The 6-foot-3, 215-pound Holines committed to UMass last June, as the first in-state commitment of the Class of 2013 for head coach Charley Molnar. Holines helped the Red Raiders advance to the Western Mass. Division 2 Super Bowl last December after going 2-9 in 2010. For the 2011 season, he registered 132 tackles, including six sacks, and recovered four fumbles. As a tight end offensively, he caught 22 passes for 232 yards and three scores.

Holines visited the UMass campus for a practice two Sundays ago. Last Sunday, he accompanied teammate Hassan Graham, a senior safety, on an unofficial visit to the UConn campus. Mathis said Holines "enjoyed both places."

"Even after the trip to UConn he didn't say anyhting," Mathis said. "I know him pretty well and I was little bit shocked. If he was thinking about do that, I think he would've came to me first, but I guess he's grown up."
there seems to be some question as if he has or will commit to uconn. i have now seen he is committing to uconn and hes just open. might have to wait a bit on this one. also we have had our eyes on graham since camp as well. package deal?

What's the status with Hassan Graham? thought we liked him more as a LB than a S.. maybe a hybrid LB/S

 

[huskymedic]

link

Commerce lineman/linebacker Sha-ki Holines told MassLive.com Tuesday that he intends to decommit from the UMass Minutemen and give a commitment to the UConn Huskies sometime by the end of next week.
The 6-foot-3, 215-pound senior said he has received a scholarship offer from Maine in addition to UMass and UConn, and has also heard interest from Missouri, Michigan, Syracuse and Boston College.

I don't get the "give a commitment to the UConn Huskies sometime by the end of next week"... It's a verbal commitment, canbe done by phone - why wait? Strange.

 

[UConnErik]

Does anyone know Sha-ki's "real" size? Looking around the net, I have seen him listed anywhere from 215 to 260. Sounding more like a DE than a LB.

 

[PAGS]

ESPN has him as 6'4" 240 lbs and an Inside LB

And he's pretty fast for a big guy....40 in 5.13

 

[Duncan Idaho]

ESPN has him as 6'4" 240 lbs and an Inside LB

And he's pretty fast for a big guy....40 in 5.13

...Rivals has him listed as 6-4 227lbs. Weakside DE

 

[EdgewoodNHV]

Welcome to the family, Holiness!

Sorry to UMass, but, uh... hey... it happens?

 

[UConnDan97]

Welcome to the family, Holiness!

Sorry to UMass, but, uh... hey... it happens?

Temple didn't say sorry to us when Matt Barone jumped our ship. This happens all the time (unfortunately), and really nothing is set until February...

 

[CL82]

"When I talked to him about he said yeah, he wants go to UConn," Mathis said. "I don't know if he's gonna commit there, or if he's decommitting just to see what else is out there. It was a shocker to me."

Get used to it.

 

[Dann]

just another sign of the #uptick. when holines makes the verbal "official" to the media and school, if it comes before the umass game that would be commit 15. that's 15 commits for the class before the season before is played which would be the fastest we have ever gotten to 15 commits. its a small stat but shows the direction were moving in. most big time programs have 90% of the next years class done before the fall season. this shows that more kids are biting sooner on uconn offers. it allows the staff to focus a bit more on the season and the next class 2 years away. this type of progress is quietly impressive to me. what would really be great is if we can get a early recruit or so for the 14 class. not a lot of programs get 14 recruits this early but the big boys do. i don't remember us ever having a early verbal like that yet in our young history. #uptick

 

[rich1122]

Now we need an RB (or 2).

 

[Dann]

Now we need an RB (or 2).

yup. we need to roll out the red carpet for laray or dez. we def need a rb in this class but only 1 imho. clay is the backup it sounds like if we miss on the big time recruits. next year the area is stacked at rb so i'm not to worried overall about the position considering that and our current youth with lyle and crew.

 

[Srqhusky]

Welcome sha ki ! Has highlights on you tube. He put a couple tackles down pretty good as an end and made nice blocks as a tight end. He motors around the field with energy. Definitely a good get. Welcome newest husky

 

[Rondogg]

"and has also heard interest from Missouri, Michigan, Syracuse and Boston College. "

Be careful of the food chain comments...

 

[ConnHuskBask]

UMass and Maine offers?

The staff realizes we're not in the Yankee Conference anymore right?

I keep seeing this 'uptick' mentioned everywhere on the Boneyard, yet we're still losing most of the head to head battles with BC, Rutgers and Syracuse and the majority of the recruits in this class are 2* or 3* with offers from MAC schools.

If the staff wants a kid, fine. It just worries me that no other BCS programs had offered the guy.

 

[Yonick]

Most of the time if UConn recruits a kid with few stars or few BCS offers it means we have uncovered an overlooked player. Edsall lived off this. It seems Pasqueloni is doing much the same.
The exception between both coaches is that Pasqueloni seems to get more commitments at an earlier stage.

 

[johnhuskies95]

UMass and Maine offers?

The staff realizes we're not in the Yankee Conference anymore right?

I keep seeing this 'uptick' mentioned everywhere on the Boneyard, yet we're still losing most of the head to head battles with BC, Rutgers and Syracuse and the majority of the recruits in this class are 2* or 3* with offers from MAC schools.

If the staff wants a kid, fine. It just worries me that no other BCS programs had offered the guy.

How many kids have we actually lost to Rutgers and Syracuse? Even with BC, it's basically just been Boyle, which was a visible loss.


In the words of Jim Calhoun, get some facts and come back and see me.

 

[ConnHuskBask]

How many kids have we actually lost to Rutgers and Syracuse? Even with BC, it's basically just been Boyle, which was a visible loss.


In the words of Jim Calhoun, get some facts and come back and see me.

Here are my facts, according to the rivals.com 2013 commit lists which, of course is relatively young.

Kids with a UConn offer that picked Syracuse, BC or Rutgers:

2 kids to Syracuse
2 kids to Rutgers
4 kids to BC

Kids with a Syracuse, BC or Rutgers offer that picked UConn:

1 with a Rutgers offer
1 with a BC offer

I'm sorry, we're still basically getting guys that have MAC offers or no offers at all. Do our coaches know more than Rivals and fans? Of course. Does it make me nervous that hardly any other BCS teams have offers to our recruits? Yes, that concerns me a lot.

Hope they prove me wrong.

 

[Dann]

why not pile on? i wish our qb commit had mac offers like the rest of our commits wha wha wha

oh wait he just got named to a team of dream recruits. u have to look at star/offers/where/when and many more things to judge a class. some thing like offers weight more than others but in total i stand by my uptick theory because i'm seeing it and i think some others are also.
Jim Fuller ‏@NHRJimFuller
#UConn football commit Richard Lagow named QB on National Underclassman Combine first team

link


i can go on and on with things
the past 2 years we have actually landed a ct kid each year with other big time offers. thats progress. is it killing it? no but its progress.
i can't wait to the day when we get a nj kid with a ruty offer, were close to doing that. that klecko kid who chose ruty came down to them and us and visited us and had a tough decision. did u know that?
we got texas kids thinking about us and a qb from texas
were getting kids from florida with sec offers, yea thats right.
were taking good steps in nyc also.